Episode 23
Summary Brilith and Asha arrive at the testing site for the third exam, where they will fight simulated mara-ranked suras in a magically-created space. This exam would greatly influence their final magician ranking. Rindhallow's version of the third exam differs from the other magicians guilds because it uses the results of the previous two exams to adjust the difficulty of the simulation. A typical exam would have around 5-10 suras. Partners are required to cooperate, since a large difference in scores would result in deductions. The pair enter Exam room #6, and are faced with possibly over 100 suras. Asha asks Brilith if she is better with bhavati agni or hoti agni; when Brilith responds with hoti, Asha first casts hoti kubera to strengthen her left arm, then launches her into the air with bhavati vayu. After a few moments of panic Brilith casts hoti agni, but Agni (who had been sleeping to minimize any interference with the exam) wakes up, realizes she is calculating incorrectly, and tweaks her spell a little. Her attack burns the surrounding area, to Brilith's relief, but as she nearly reaches the ground again, her partner boosts her back into the air. Brilith protests, but Asha responds that it is for her own safety as she approaches a group of suras. The test administrators are unable to figure out why the test for room #6 has so many suras, especially since there is no apparent system malfunction. The bring up the pair's information on the screen, and Asha's second exam score, 0515, raises a red flag among the administrators because of the leading zero. Also displayed are Brilith's triple attributes (agni/agni/agni) and Asha's singles (marut/indra/vayu). 1-23 entering exam room 6.png|entrance 1-23 Brilith and Asha facing Sura.png|realization 1-23 Brilith and Asha facing Sura 2.png|evaluation 1-23 Asha facing Sura.png|confidence Currygom's comment I want to see Leez. But four years ago, Leez was a 12-year-old kid. Afterword ■ 17-year-old Brilith had such wide, round eyes, round round. But at 21... she looks older, like a totally different person, four years later. ■ It's Eloth University instead of Magic University because Eloth University is a comprehensive university with many other colleges as well as a College of Magic. It's similar to Seoul National University with its College of Natural Science, College of Engineering, College of Business Management, etc... On the other hand, Rindhallow Magic University only has a magic department. ■ The site for the third exam was made by creation magic! Creation magic can create a testing field like that~ totally amazing~~ that's not true. You can say that it was creation magic, but it was made by a creation magician by summoning the God of Creation, Brahma. So, strictly speaking, you can't really say that it was made by creation magic... Of course, it takes magic to summon a god, but it's not the same type of magic as most magic spells named hoti or bhavati. ■ Even though Brilith says "...unless you exterminate all of them, we won't be able to get an A rank", there isn't actually a rule that states that. But if you give up and fail before killing everything, there's a huge penalty on the points you've already earned. So it basically means the same thing. heh ■ The lowest-level suras, maras, are unable to use transcendentals until they develop to their final stage. (Their social status and their developmental stage are different.) Of course, the ones at the Rindhallow Magicians Guild are not in their final stage. I will write more about the Asura and Ananta clans later. We're not far enugh into the story for me to disclose it yet. ■ Since Rindhallow Magicians Guild increases the number of suras according to the level of the person taking the exam, it's not too difficult to face each sura one by one. (The exam methods at Eloth and Mistyshore are a bit different.) However, a magician can face various problems such as their vigor, magic usage limit, and calculation errors. So the best way to avoid a counterattack is a one-shot kill—that's your only hope. When only a small number of suras come at you, you can defeat them one by one with your partner. But in this situation, with a large number of suras attacking you, you can't defeat them one by one. If you do, without attacking the others at the same time, you end up taking too much time to kill them all and you lose points. In addition, you have a limited number of times to use magic per day (this is the biggest reason). ■ But to use a spell against many suras like Brilith did— Just as Brilith worried, it's a very dangerous thing to do. Even if you have triple attributes and a high divine affinity, there's no guarantee that you can kill them all when there are so many of them. If someone misses the shot and they survive it, then things will become dangerous from that point. You know when you play games, and you're attacking a group of enemies, occasionally someone survives because their stamina is greater? It's something like that. In this case, there are many monsters who don't attack you first but their attack power is greater. Cool, there are a bunch of monsters standing together in a group?! You could attack them like that, but it's a scary situation when you consider that the enemy's counterattack may be too tough to deal with. Notes * In the previous episode, Saha On must have warned against Asha taking the exam in Rindhallow precisely because the difficulty of the test varies based on the previous test scores. On the other hand, Asha may have wanted this, since this would have allowed her to get a higher score. * Suras from the Ananta and Asura clans are the most common on Willarv. This is probably the reason why the exams simulate those. * Asha's number is 11123002, so she is probably the 2nd person to register on the 30th of the 12th month of N11. This date appears to be several days later than the participants shown in the previous episode, so she may have arrived relatively late. * Brilith nearly hit herself on the head. Show/Hide Spoiler We later learn that she is poor at Flame Mastery, a fire-attribute silent magic. Flame mastery is necessary for effective use of hoti agni: without it, the users risk hitting themselves with their own spell. References